2009 Cape May County Tourism Conference ... Part 3 of 3 Postings
The 2009 CMCDOT Booklet was produced by the Cape May County Department of Tourism under the direction of Diane Wieland. At the back of the booklet, the following notice appears: "This informational handout is produced by the Cape May County Department of Tourism by Diane Wieland, Kathryn Tomlin and Deborah Bass; additional copies are available by calling 609-463-6415. Some data will be listed on the county web-site at capemaycountygov.net and www.thejerseycape.com
My summary and observations after listening to Diane Wieland and reading the 2009 booklet follow. What I did was take some careful notes and not do my normal underlining of the booklet so that the rest of French Real Estate could also enjoy it accordingly. I felt that the attendance and enthusiasm at the conference was quite apparent showing me that the efforts of a wide range of people from many different occupations and even locations have all come together in the promotion of tourism in Cape May County. Being in the northern most reaches of the county, Ocean City, I find many people do not identify with the entire county. That is too bad ... because clearly Ocean City benefits as much as any area in the efforts of the entire county, particularly for tourism.
Clearly, as each tourist-related occupation looks only a their specific area; we lose something in the mix. As we focus on each activity, event, etc. with a broader, cooperative understanding; we all gain just a bit more. As a real estate agent, I certainly appreciated the efforts made to get the quality speakers to the conference, the efforts to again produce such a rich and informative tourism document, and again the enthusiasm and support apparent from the speakers, attendees, and others.
Cape May County has 50.2% of all second homes in New Jersey. From the presentation I believe Ocean City is the county leader in second homes. It's easy to understand this ... but truly amazing when you think about it. Check out this fact: "The second homeowner will again positively impact visitor spending in 2009 ... The survey found the second homeowner spends on average $300 more per visit than the traditional visitor in food, fuel and entertainment" (2009 CMCDOT Booklet).
An interesting observation from the data: "Visitors want activities, not places to go. Location is ALWAYS second to the activity ... Promote the activities and then the location for each" (2009 CMCDOT Booklet). I plan to take a page from this one ... clearly, we (as real estate agents) just don't do enough about activities ... we are strictly into the rental property.
Another concept which when you think about makes sense, but we don't think about it: "70% of all local and visitor spending takes place after 6:00 PM" (2009 CMCDOT Booklet). Most people spend the day on the beach, or walking, or biking ... spending some monies ... but (I guess) not more than 30% of it.
One final thought: it's probably an easy answer to this question, but here it is: name the eight leasure activities that received the highest percentage of votes (during your stay at the Jersey Cape - Cape May County). And the answer is: beach - 89%, boardwalk - 76%, shopping - 67%, zoo - 28%, historic tours - 27%, Atlantic City/casinos - 25%, boating - 25%, and biking - 25%. Let's go back to two paragraphs ago ... how can we connect the dots here?
Well, my recommendation is to obtain a copy of the book from th Cape May County Department of Tourism.
Dap
Comments(0)